Review: Sony Ericsson P990i

A smartphone with some neat features, but its lack of a mini-USB connector makes synching tricky

Launched this autumn, Sony Ericsson's P990i should appeal to mobile professionals who need a feature-rich, versatile device. Costing £570 + VAT without a contract, the P990i weighs only 155g and runs the newest release of the Symbian OS, version 9.1.

This high-quality smartphone has a distinctive flip-lid that opens to reveal a thumbpad for typing email, SMS, and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

The screen is a 240 x 320 pixel, 18bit colour TFT model and the lithium polymer battery is rated at 1,120mAh. This, according to Sony Ericsson, should give three hours on 3G networks and nine hours on GSM, with standby times of 12 days on 3G and 16 days on GSM.

The P990i incorporates two cameras – a standard VGA model for video calls, and a two-megapixel, autofocus camera for taking shots singly, in four-shot bursts or for recording video clips.
The device can also be used as a radio, stopwatch and timer, and although the P990i's onboard storage is limited to 64MB, users can slot in up to 4GB.

Users have access to the internet via integrated GSM and Wi-Fi connectivity, with push email features available alongside Bluetooth links for making calls on headsets or hands-free kits. Startup time from switch-on to being able to make a call was about 50 seconds, and usability for most tasks proved good.

The 'jog dial' was easily controllable and the GUI could be navigated without too much trouble. There are 'quickstart' buttons on the side of the phone to start the camera, fire up the onboard Opera 8 web browser, go back from the currently viewed web page, and start the media player. Once we got the knack of using the business card scanner, it generally picked up most of the information from the card, although unusual fonts were a problem.

Although the device supports wireless connections through Bluetooth, infra-red and 802.11b, users cannot 'hand-off' calls from GSM to a Wi-Fi-enabled broadband router or public access hotspot. Nor does the P990i work on the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services recently made available by Vodafone and T-Mobile.

Unfortunately, the P990i does not synchronise through a standard USB to mini-USB connector, but uses Sony Ericsson's proprietary version operating at USB 2.0 rates. Transferring data off the mobile phone memory involves setting the phone to 'file transfer' mode, while synchronising with Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express requires the user to switch to 'phone' mode, but modes cannot be changed when connected to a PC with the USB cable. Sony Ericsson said there is a Lotus Notes client for the device.